Federal cuts affect services: PBO
Government disputes report
OTTAWA Seven months after the Conservative government promised its $ 5.2 billion in budget savings would come mostly from “back- office” trimming, a new report from the parliamentary budget officer says 85 per cent of the planned expenditure cuts are actually from direct program spending.
The government, however, disputes the PBO’s findings, and insists that 70 per cent of the targeted cuts will come from back-office administration, rather than cuts to frontline services.
The PBO report also notes the Harper government has released limited information on its planned budget cuts, making it impossible for the budget officer to adequately report to Parliament with independent analysis on the state of the nation’s finances. While the budget officer has received information from almost all of the 82 departments and organizations facing cuts, most of it is highlevel program activities with few details provided on specific savings measures.
Only onequarter of the affected organizations, representing less than three per cent of the planned reductions, have provided the PBO with requested details on staffing reductions or the effect on service levels.
“We’ve got no spending plans from departments that are consistent with budget 2012,” Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page said Tuesday in an interview. “We don’t see any resemblance of a plan.”
The limited detail that has been released shows the federal government is already having difficulty hitting its targets and has reduced its projected savings by at least $80 million by 2014-15, the report says.
The government announced in its March budget that it will cut $5.2 billion from operating spending over the next three years and eliminate 19,200 federal jobs as part of its plan to balance the books.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in March, on the eve of the federal budget, the majority of the spending cuts were related to “back-office operations in government” and did not deal with program service delivery.
But the PBO report concludes only 15 per cent of the planned $5.2 billion in spending reductions over the next three years are actually from back-office cuts to “internal services,” such as communications, legal and human resources services, as well as IT and administrative services.